BBQ (Block Bad Queries) is a simple script that protects your website against malicious URL requests. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval( and base64_. The plugin is ultra minimal, so there are no options to configure which strings are blocked or allowed — it’s basically a “set-it-and-forget-it” type plugin. To give the plugin more flexibility, here are two plugins that enable you to whitelist or blacklist your own custom strings.

To resolve the issue, we can install the BBQ Whitelist plugin and remove the matching pattern from $request_uri_array. To do so, open the BBQ Whitelist plugin and edit the “whitelist items” like so:

$bbq_whitelist_request_uri_items = array('\/http\:', '\:\/\/');

Here we have added two items to the whitelist array, \/http\: and \:\/\/. Save, upload, and done. BBQ now will ignore the specified patterns and thus restore access to the page.

BBQ Blacklist

On the other side of the coin, let’s say that you have some string that you would like BBQ to block. For example, the infamous fckeditor seems to be a perpetual target for malicious scanning and wannabe exploits. So let’s block once and for all by adding it to BBQ.

Here we have added the offending string to each of the three blacklist arrays, so we’re covered if the string appears in the URL, query string, and/or user agent. Then save, upload, and done. BBQ now will block the pesky fckeditor string wherever it’s found.

Note that BBQ Whitelist/Blacklist requires BBQ version 20150314 or better.

That PHP function displays information about your server, PHP, Apache, etc. Whether or not it’s malicious depends on who put it there and for what reason. If you or maybe one of your associates put the file, then it’s probably nothing to worry about. Otherwise, if you are sure it was placed there by some unauthorized person/script, then yeah I would investigate asap. Bottom line is that it should not be there, or it should be locked down to prevent anyone else from accessing it.